Coriell Institute for Medical Research

The Coriell Institute for Medical Research in New Jersey is an internationally known not-for-profit, basic biomedical research institution.

In the late 1940s, the Institute’s founder, Lewis L. Coriell, M.D., Ph.D., played a major role in bringing the Salk polio vaccine to the public by using cell cultures to study human viral diseases. The Institute pioneered many cell culture techniques which are now standard throughout the world. They used these techniques to make many advances in understanding cancer and infectious diseases.

The Coriell Institute for Medical Research also serves the entire scientific community by maintaining the world’s largest collection of human cells for research. The identification of genes associated with Huntington Disease, cystic fibrosis, Alzheimer Disease, Down Syndrome and a severe form of manic depression, among many others, relied on cells from these collections.

With funding from the State of New Jersey, this innovative program the Institute collects and stores umbilical cord blood. A public resource, the NJCBB makes umbilical cord blood transplantation available to all citizens. Coriell is not in the business of storing cord blood exclusively for individuals.

The New Jersey Cord Blood Bank accepts cord blood donations at no cost from women who give birth at either Cooper Hospital or Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, both in Camden, and Virtua Health’s Voorhees division. The donations are available publicly to anyone looking for a match. Other participating hospitals are: